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Monday, May 14, 2012

RISE OF THE FALLEN

by Donya Lynne

In the streets of Chicago
exists an uneasy, centuries-old truce between vampires and their distant
cousins, a race of shifters called drecks.
Vampire enforcement agency, All the King’s Men (AKM), is charged with
maintaining the truce, but when volatile enforcer Micah Black loses his mate
and falls into the biological agony that results from the broken bond, he tests
the boundaries of the truce by seeking out Apostle, a leader in the dreck
community. Micah wants Apostle to kill
him, a request Apostle is more than happy to fulfill.

When ex-Army medic Samantha
Garrett inadvertently disrupts the plot and saves Micah’s life, a chain
reaction sets Micah’s heart on a collision course with Sam’s, but he will have
to protect her from Apostle and her obsessive ex-husband, Steve, if they will
have a chance at forever. Can Micah hold
his emotions together to keep Sam alive?

* * * *

Hi,
I'm Donya Lynne, and that's the blurb of my debut novel, Rise of the Fallen. I
want to thank Demon Lover's Books and More for allowing me to guest on their
blog today to share a bit about the book and series.

The
premise for the AKM series was to create a paranormal world of vampires and
shifters cut from a different cloth. I love a good vampire story as much as the
next person, but I wanted to give readers something different, yet familiar.
Consequently, my vampires aren't your everyday, common vampires. Each is different
from the rest. Some are day walking mixed-bloods (human and vampire…or even a
mix of non-human and vampire) who can go out in the sun and were born
genetically-altered to possess special powers their mixed blood bestowed upon
them. Others are pure-bloods with the standard powers of vampires and who dwell
only in the shadows of night. However, whether my vampires are pure or
mixed-blood, all are damaged and tragic in some way.

My
stories are darker and delve more into pain and suffering than what I've seen
in mainstream books. I've noticed a trend where readers seem to be ready for
darker, sexier, grittier fantasy, and that fits perfectly with my style of
writing. I am a conflict junkie. I love adversity and suffering. The more a
character suffers, whether physically or emotionally, the greater their victory
when they overcome (if they overcome) it. Case in point, Micah Black from Rise
of the Fallen. He is a perfect example of how I like my characters to be tragic
in some way.

I
do have some books planned for this series that aren't as hardcore as others,
but Rise of the Fallen is a bit more on the harder core side. Micah is one
ruthless, self-destructive male on a death mission when the book begins. Pain
is his only companion, and that's just how he wants it…until he meets Samantha
Garrett and realizes he wants her instead. But even she has her trials to
overcome. And together, they will be in even more danger. So, yes, lots of
adversity and conflict rides along with the storyline in this one.

I
also wanted to create a different kind of "enemy" in this paranormal
world. That's where the drecks come in. These beings are shifters, but not like
werewolves or other animal shifting creatures. In their natural state, drecks
appear bluish and gaunt, with long, black hair. In their shifted form, they can
take on any human appearance they want. They are like chameleons, altering
their appearance to blend in to their surroundings. And some of them, such as
Apostle, would like nothing more than to eradicate the "disease"
of vampires interfering with their objective to take over the world.

Drecks
are distant cousins to the vampires. They have venom. They bite. But drecks
have their own quirks and powers. However, they are inferior to vampires, which
is the source of their discontent. Well, that and their general and overall
lack of moral code. It's the job of the vampires who work for All the King's
Men, an enforcement agency, to keep the drecks in check, but as the series
develops, we'll see that it won't be easy. Not all books in the series will
feature drecks, because that's just how it worked out, but many will in one way
or another.

It's
been a pleasure to share a bit of the AKM world with you. I hope you've enjoyed
hearing about the book, Rise of the Fallen, as well as the series. Book two,
Heart of the Warrior, comes out May 25, and it definitely follows the tragic
relationship MO that Rise of the Fallen started.